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Topic: Trying to identify (Read 1416 times)

Hi, I'm new here. I've been trawling the net for hours trying to get information, I wonder if anyone can help me?I've got a small glass box with a nude female lying down on the top. I've got as far as finding out that it is the same design as a Desna, small meditation box, based on a pattern by Heinrich Hoffman. The thing is, the Desna is supposed to be signed on the bottom, and mine doesn't have that. It has a small butterfly etched into the underside of the top, and it looks exactly like thishttp://www.timelesspath.com/JPGs/figurines/80043C.htm

so is it a copy? I know that the Hoffman signature was a butterfly, but I don't know where it was placed, or if Desna use the signature butterfly as well as the Hoffman mould.Clare[/url]

Welcome to the GMB. Sounds to me much more like yours is an original Hoffman than a modern copy. What colour is the glass? Is it very clear and bright like modern glass or does it have a very slight discoloration? Is there any age-related damage, tiny chips, scratches on the bottom? A picture of the original would help. See the glass forum menu for help in posting pics

This link has information on telling the difference. I'm not sure that all Desna is marked, and I think I read somewhere that the Desna was of much worse quality than the original. All this is retrieved from a very shaky memory - I don't know and wouldn't feel qualified to comment myself, but with luck this page should help.

Anyway, Acrobat reader has crash on my machine so I can't even check for you!

Experience teaches that anyone who begins to collect in any field can feel a change in his soul. He becomes a joyful man filled with a deeper empathy, and a more open understanding of worldly things moves his soul. (Alfred Lichtwark 1852 – 1914)

I'm still struggling to get a good picture, I'll keep trying. The glass looks old, the basehas scratches. In the lid, underneath the nude, there are sort of wave marks in the glass. The glass is quite thick, and at the front, where her head 9is, there is a thin mould line running across the top of her head and down both shoulders, terminating at each corner of the frosted portion. The glass of the box base is slightly thicker on one side than the other. It has a couple of nibbles on two underside corners of the base. How much are the reproductions? Just hoping I've paid less than it's worth if it turns out to be a copy!From the mark, it seems to be 1930, or pretending to be.Thanks for your help, it's nice to find others who love glass!Clare